Business owners have a lot on their plates these days. Aside from the day-to-day tasks required to run the business, there is the whole marketing side of things. While it’s true that the majority of you know that marketing is done primarily online, only a small percent really understand how to do it. The world of online marketing is complex, to say the least. This article will tackle only one small part of it, but they say the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.
Facebook Marketing
Ahhhh, Facebook. Maybe you love it, maybe you don’t, but regardless of how you feel about it, it’s an important part of a business marketing strategy. Facebook can be a great place to raise brand awareness, increase customer loyalty and generate organic (free) leads when by putting in some thought and a little effort. Here are 6 ways you can make Facebook work for you.
Figure Out Your Perfect Mix of Content
One of the hardest parts of consistently posting to your social pages is figuring out what to post. That’s why many business owners hire an outside agency to post for them. There is nothing wrong with that- it’s a smart idea and can save you time, energy and brain damage, but that doesn’t mean you’re totally off the hook. You still have to participate in your social marketing strategy, because the only person who acts and talks like you, is, well, you.
Contributing to the content that is being posted on your behalf with real-life photos and videos, asking your audience questions through a post, sharing your wisdom about something you’re an expert in through helpful tips, even sharing your friends hilarious post, is exactly what you should be contributing. Doing this, and the other things listed in this post are going to help take you to the next level- the one you’ve been trying to get to, but haven’t quite been able to figure out how to get over the hump. Acting on the suggestions in this article is what will really set your company apart from your competitors because the majority of business owners aren’t doing it.
Customer Provided Content
Encourage your customers to send in their images and videos relevant to your business. You may consider having a contest for your audience asking them to send in their photos of them using your product or showing off your services. Let them vote on the best ones and offer a great prize. Don’t forget to take pictures of you awarding them their prize to post on your page and theirs.
Engage With Your Audience
Interacting with people on your page who take the time to read your updates, then react, comment or share it can make your audience form an emotional bond with your brand. It’s predicted that in 2020, forming a bond with your followers on an individual basis is going to become even more important than in the past.
There are many agencies that provide social posting services- meaning they will post at regular, consistent intervals to your page, which is good for SEO. There are a few that do a really good job, and create highly engaging content. But, no matter who you hire or how much you pay them, interacting with your audience as yourself is best done by, well, you. After all, you probably know who (most) of your followers are. By personally interacting with them, you’re going to build and strengthen the relationship and create the bond mentioned before. When a customer is emotionally connected to your business, they’re more likely to give you their repeat business and refer others to you. Statistics show that the cost of acquiring business from referrals is much lower- up to 5 times lower- than acquiring new business.
Employee Post Engagement
Updates posted by a business only appear in 1%-5% of your viewers' news feeds. The more engaging a post is, however, the more visible it becomes. Meaning, as a post gains likes, comments and shares, Facebook's algorithms see that it contains content that people like, so it gets shown to more of your audience
You have a network of people in your immediate circle that can help out with this. Start by liking the update yourself and share it to your personal page. Then, have employees, your spouse, your children (if appropriate), your business partner and, heck, even your parents do the same. Employees can interact with each other via comments and show your audience that your business has a fun culture, and they want to be apart of that.
In addition to gaining more reach through engagement, your audience will naturally be drawn into a culture of camaraderie and want to be a part of it.
Post Images of Real Stuff
It sounds pretty simple, right? Maybe even too simple. You might think, “People don’t want to see this before and after picture of a yard I just landscaped!”, but that isn’t true. They do want to see it, and many more pictures like it. Start taking pictures of everything and post them on your social media. Go a step further to earn extra credit by tagging the business or customer in the picture you’re posting (with their permission, of course).
The extra credit comes in from tagging that business or person, your post will also appear on their page(s), and 1%-5% of their audience will see the post if it's a business page, even more if it’s a personal page.
Statistics in recent months are showing that your audience is engaging more with real images versus stock images. People don’t care about people they don’t know- they care about people they do know. Help them know you better by sharing images and videos of day-to-day happenings.
Reviews
If you’re tired of hearing about reviews all the time, you probably ought to start taking some action. Creating a strategy for gathering more customer reviews, implementing that strategy and remaining consistent with your strategy to encourage your customers to review your company on Google and/or Facebook will positively impact your bottom line, your search ranking, increase your traffic and drive more sales. Who doesn’t want that?!?!
Sit down today and figure out what you are going to do to gather more reviews from your satisfied customers. Adding a line in your email signature with a link, requiring employees to ask every customer for a review and offering a small incentive are all great ways to get more reviews.
Facebook offers business owners an opportunity to really connect with an audience, increase brand awareness and generate more business without having to buy traffic. This is part of a long term strategy, and you may feel frustrated at times because it probably won’t generate instant leads. But, patience and perseverance will pay off. For ways to generate more immediate organic leads, check out this article on Facebook’s Hidden Goldmine.
The fact is, the more real you are to your audience, and the more engaged you and your brand are with them, the more success you’ll see from your social marketing strategy. If you’re still not ready to jump on Facebook and start liking, commenting and sharing posts right now, it's alright. Thin Air Marketing Group can hold your hand, work with you to design a workable strategy and help you until you feel comfortable. Get in touch today!